German-Mexican Energy Partnership

Project description

Title: German-Mexican Energy Partnership
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)
Country: Mexico
Lead executing agency: Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID) 
Overall term: 2016 to 2023

Logo of the German-Mexican Energy Partnership © GIZ

Context

The German-Mexican Energy Partnership (EP) is supporting Mexico in expanding its renewable energy sector. It is the central platform for energy policy dialogue between Germany and Mexico and was agreed in 2016 as part of the joint efforts to achieve a global energy transition.

With a population of 125 million and high-energy transport and industrial sectors, Mexico is among the world’s biggest energy consumers. The country is the world’s tenth largest producer of crude oil and natural gas, and fossil fuels play a dominant role in its energy consumption. At the same time, Mexico has enormous potential for renewable energy, which needs to be increasingly harnessed.

The German-Mexican Energy Partnership is part of the global programme on Supporting Bilateral Energy Partnerships in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in implementing and refining the design of energy partnerships with Algeria, Brazil, Chile, China, Ethiopia, India, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia. In addition, GIZ is helping to set up a dialogue with other developing countries and emerging economies.

Objective

The German-Mexican Energy Partnership is helping to promote digitalisation and decentralisation in the energy sector. It supports the expansion of renewable energy and the use of more efficient energy technologies.

Approach

The priority areas of the energy partnership include:

  • Inclusive electricity sector
  • Integration of variable renewable energies
  • Energy efficiency in the industrial sector
  • Information and transparency in the oil and gas sector
  • Participation in international forums

The energy partnership promotes political and technical dialogue on these priority topics through events, studies, delegation missions and social media communications.

The BMWK and the Mexican Secretariat of Energy (SENER) are responsible for the partnership. Federal states, the private sector and experts from the academic community and civil society are also involved.

With the support of GIZ, a secretariat with offices in Mexico City and Berlin has been set up to coordinate the partnership. It serves as the first point of contact for stakeholders and as an information platform for all activities in the partnership. 

Results

The energy partnership has become a central exchange platform for the energy transition. The focus was initially on political dialogue, but since 2019 more attention has been devoted to thematic work with experts from the two countries, particularly on the issues of decentralisation and digitalisation.

With a series of expert events on the topics of digitalisation, innovation, cyber security and blockchain, the partnership has enabled several hundred Mexican experts to share ideas and experiences with guests from Germany and other countries. The partnership subsequently invited visitors to the 2019 summer reception in Mexico City. Participants from government, the private sector, civil society and the embassies of several countries came together under the heading ‘Trends in the energy sector: innovation and digitalisation’. A few months later, 200 experts gathered to expand on previous discussions.

The publications prepared on these topics provide food for thought for representatives from the government, private sector and civil society. One example here is the publication on ‘Blockchain Meets Energy’, which the secretariat of the energy partnership presented in Montevideo in July 2019.

German-Mexican Energy Partnership © GIZ

The energy partnership promotes the participation of the Mexican federal states in international expert dialogue on the energy transition. In November 2019, the President of the Mexican Association of Solar Energy and the Vice Minister of the Environment in the federal state of Puebla thus took part in a conference entitled ‘Energy Transitions in Latin America: drivers, opportunities & challenges’ organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in cooperation with the German-Brazilian Energy Partnership.

Last update: December 2022